Govt formulating comprehensive strategy to eliminate TB: health minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Health Services, Aamir Mehmood Kiani said on Sunday that an integrated strategy was being formulated by the federal government to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) across the country, ARY News reported.

Aamir Mehmood Kiani, in his message on World Tuberculosis Day, said that the government will work jointly with the private sector alongside for eradication of tuberculosis from Pakistan.

The health minister said that facilities for early diagnosis of the disease were being provided at the door doorsteps. He added that the incumbent government was paying special attention to the critical issue and strengthened program providing free treatment to TB patients.

He said that TB is a curable disease and various diagnosis & treatment centres were established in different parts of the country providing treatment facilities without charging any fees.

Approximately 0.5 million TB cases emerged annually in Pakistan while the government provided treatment to 0.3 million nationals, he detailed.

Kiani vowed that the nationals will witness significant improvement in the health sector this year.

Kiani said that the government has been working to make federal capital a model health city and there was a plan to work on health tourism with the provision of modern health technology to the hospital.

The Ministry of National Health Services has decided to upgrade all rural health center (RHCs) and basic health units (BHUs) in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with addition of more facilities to ensure the provision of the best medical cover to its citizens.

He added that two more RHCs and nine BHUs will be built in coming years in the rural areas of Islamabad. He detailed that more than 30 hospitals have been upgraded to take care of multi-drug resistance TB cases and 13 labs equipped with state of the art facilities are being established in various part of the country.

World Tuberculosis Day

World Tuberculosis Day is being observed Pakistan today like elsewhere in the world.

the Tuberculosis is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects one’s lungs and still remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer.

The theme of World TB Day this year is “Its time to put the accent on the urgency to act on the commitments made by global leaders to scale up access to prevention and treatment of the disease, build accountability, ensure sufficient and sustainable financing including for research and promote an end to stigma and discrimination, and an equitable, rights-based and people-centered TB response”.